2027: A landmark year for Waddesdon Manor

Waddesdon Manor will mark two significant anniversaries in 2027: 150 years since the laying of its foundation stone in 1877, and 70 years since James de Rothschild bequeathed the Manor to the National Trust in 1957.

Five exhibitions and displays will bring together historic loans, new commissions and discoveries from family archives. The programme includes the reunion of two portraits by Thomas Gainsborough, the return of the Holy Thorn Reliquary from the British Museum, an exhibition exploring the life and influence of an overlooked Bloomsbury member Mary Hutchinson, new ceramic sculpture by Rebecca Manson, and Jacob’s Dream, a walk through the grounds featuring works commissioned in memory of Jacob, 4th Lord Rothschild (1936–2024).

Created by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild from 1874, Waddesdon Manor houses some 15,000 objects and works of art from the Rothschild collection, with particularly distinguished holdings of eighteenth-century French furniture, porcelain and textiles. Managed by the Rothschild Foundation in partnership with the National Trust, the Manor continues to reflect the family’s commitment to the arts, communities and the environment.

Dame Hannah Rothschild said: “These anniversaries are a chance to celebrate the people who created Waddesdon Manor and those who have cared for it since. They are also an opportunity to bring something new to the house and gardens. From the return of the Holy Thorn Reliquary to the works commissioned for Jacob’s Dream, we hope this programme will give visitors fresh reasons to look, explore and enjoy a place that has meant so much to five generations of my family.”

 

Object in Focus: The Prince and the Soldier: two portraits by Thomas Gainsborough

17 March – 31 October 2027

To mark the 300th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788), Waddesdon Manor will reunite two portraits commissioned to celebrate a friendship.

Lent by His Majesty The King from the Royal Collection will be Gainsborough’s portrait of John Hayes St Leger (1782), the Irish army officer, courtier, rake and politician, reunited with the Manor’s portrait of George, Prince of Wales, later George IV (1781).

The Prince commissioned portraits of himself and St Leger in military uniform. He kept St Leger’s portrait and gave his own to his friend. The latter was subsequently sold by St Leger’s family and acquired by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild for the Manor.

The display offers visitors the opportunity to see the pair together and to consider how Gainsborough represented their friendship, status and personalities. They will be shown alongside the other Gainsborough portraits in the Manor’s collection.

 

The Holy Thorn Reliquary

28 April – 31 October 2027

On loan from the British Museum, the Holy Thorn Reliquary (c.1400) will return to its 19th-century home for Waddesdon Manor’s anniversary celebrations. The display offers a close encounter with one of the most remarkable objects owned by the Manor’s founder, Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (1839–1898).

Made from enamelled gold set with sapphires, rubies and pearls, the reliquary was created for Jean, duc de Berry (1340–1416), one of the greatest patrons of medieval France. It was designed to hold a single thorn believed to come from the Crown of Thorns placed on Christ’s head before the Crucifixion. The Crown itself was a French royal relic housed in the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris; individual thorns were also preserved in separate reliquaries.

The reliquary’s history includes an extraordinary tale. By the 16th century, it was in the Habsburg Imperial Treasury. In the nineteenth century, it was replaced by a near-identical copy of the original. The genuine reliquary reached the art market and was acquired by Ferdinand’s father, Baron Anselm de Rothschild (1803–1874). Ferdinand subsequently inherited it and bequeathed it to the British Museum with some 300 objects from his “Renaissance Museum”, forming the Waddesdon Bequest.

Presented in a setting designed to encourage close looking, the reliquary will be accompanied by a selection of objects exploring the role of reliquaries in faith, the history of this particular work, and the circumstances of its creation and collecting by the Rothschild family.

Loans of manuscripts from the British Library will add to the exhibition’s exploration of its historical context.

 

Mary Hutchinson: The Heart of Bloomsbury

28 April – 31 October 2027

Writer, editor and tastemaker Mary Hutchinson (1889–1977) occupied a distinctive place in the artistic and literary life of Bloomsbury. This exhibition explores her work, friendships and influence, drawing on family archives and collections. Mary was Dame Hannah Rothschild’s great-grandmother, and the exhibition will be curated by Mary’s great-great-granddaughter, Tess Tomassini.

A published author, journalist and editor at Vogue, Mary has often been overshadowed by better-known figures associated with Bloomsbury, including Virginia Woolf (1882–1941), Vanessa Bell (1879–1961), Dora Carrington (1893–1932) and Vita Sackville-West (1892–1962). Yet her judgement and taste were valued by many of the writers and artists around her.

Mary was a literary confidante and muse to writers including Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) and T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) and was among the early readers of The Waste Land. The exhibition will also examine suggestions that she influenced Woolf’s portrayal of Mrs Dalloway (1925) and Jinny, one of the six central characters in The Waves (1931). Some 2,000 unpublished letters offer a window into her life and the relationships within this creative circle.

Moving between art, literature and modern thought, Mary connected people and ideas. The exhibition seeks to give a fuller account of her contribution to Bloomsbury and the development of modernism, exploring the influence she exercised through her writing, friendships and support for others.

Her story brings together figures including Henri Matisse (1869–1954), Diego Giacometti, Léon Bakst, Henry Tonks (1862–1937), Cecil Beaton (1904–1980), Samuel Beckett (1906–1989) and Roger Fry (1866–1934), as well as Eliot and Huxley.

Loans from Tate, Charleston, Kim Jones and others will complement the family material, revealing the range of her interests and her place within the art and literature of her time.

 

On The Wing: Work by Rebecca Manson

9 June to 31 October 2027

New York-based artist Rebecca Manson (b.1989) will bring her ceramic sculptures to Waddesdon Manor in a public exhibition exploring the beauty, fragility and strength of the natural world.

Following exhibitions in the United States, Manson will present work characterised by meticulous construction and dramatic changes of scale. Her sculptures and immersive installations enlarge details such as flowers, fallen leaves, and the wings of birds and butterflies, inviting visitors to look closely at forms that might otherwise pass unnoticed.

The works in On The Wing draw inspiration from the Manor and its surroundings, as well as the Rothschild family’s longstanding interest in natural history and the environment. A new commission will celebrate flowers associated with, or named after, members of the family, connecting the exhibition with their contributions to conservation and the natural sciences.

 

Jacob’s Dream: Art in the Landscape

Launching in July 2027

A trail of artists’ benches celebrating the legacy of Lord Jacob Rothschild 

Jacob’s Dream is a walk of more than a mile through the grounds of Waddesdon Manor, created in memory of Lord Jacob Rothschild (1936–2024). With sweeping views across the Vale of Aylesbury, the route will bring visitors into contact with specially commissioned works set within a landscape nurtured by five generations of the Rothschild family.

Along the walk, benches designed by artists and designers will offer places to sit, reflect and enjoy the gardens. Each commission responds to the invitation to create both a work of art and a place to pause in the landscape.

New commissions include work by Clementine Keith-Roach (b.1984), Edmund de Waal CBE (b.1964), Lindsey Mendick (b.1987), Mary Keen (b.1940), Michael Craig-Martin CBE (b.1941), Turner Prize winners Rachel Whiteread DBE (b.1963) and Susan Philipsz (b.1965) and new editions by Hank Willis Thomas (b.1976) and Yinka Shonibare CBE (b.1962).

These commissions will be accompanied by works already in the collection by Alison Crowther (b.1965), Joana Vasconcelos (b.1971) and Stephen Cox (b.1946) together with loans of work by Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010). The trail brings together different approaches to sculpture, design and the experience of the landscape, reflecting Jacob’s commitment to art and his care for Waddesdon Manor and its setting.

For more information about the special events surrounding the exhibitions and displays please keep an eye on the Waddesdon Manor website here www.waddesdon.org.uk.